


More Than That

by Literary



Series: Let the World Burn Through You [17]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-16
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-07-15 09:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7216309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Literary/pseuds/Literary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If something like that happened, she would never be allowed to be more than Lord Hector's mistake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	More Than That

**Author's Note:**

> Part of that five-sentence meme that went around Tumblr a while back where people sent in a sentence and I wrote the next five. This is a complete rewrite of the original fill which was requested by agirlnamedtsu. :)

He knew, from the moment he woke up beside her, that he had made a mistake.

The sight of her still awed him—not as it had the night before when her skin had been in shadow and he’d been forced to find a thousand other things about her wonderful. There was light, now, a glimmer through which the curve of her neck and shoulder were illuminated. If he stared long enough he knew he could trace old scars and tell them from the newer ones, but his eyes were drawn to her hair, dark and mussed and spread out over a wadded up blanket that served as her pillow.

Farina wasn’t a mistake; he couldn’t regret anything he’d done with her. How could he when he was as thinking and feeling a man as any other? But it was wrong, wasn’t it, what they’d done? What he’d allowed to happen? And there would be consequences. There always were.

She could end up pregnant.

But his mind shifted, fingers adjusting the blanket to cover her bare shoulder just to have something to do. Such things happened all the time; it really wasn’t so very unusual for a man of his soon-to-be position to have illegitimate children. He might even be allowed and free to love them, in his way, if he was careful. He could never show them favor over his legitimate children, but he could see them and gift them things.

And it would be easy, wouldn’t it, to put her up somewhere? To take care of her and a child—at least financially—

She stirred and the blanket slipped down again; his eyes turned toward her face, to the freckles from all her time outside that dusted across her forehead, to the crooked slant to her nose, to the almost-smile her lips seemed to favor as she rested next to him.

He frowned, carding a hand back through his hair.

If something like that happened—if he selfishly and foolishly hoped for it and it came to pass…she would always be Lord Hector’s mistake to those who knew his secret.

And she would never be allowed to be more than that.

Not to anyone, but certainly not to him.

The thought was sharp as it twisted between his ribs.

He prayed silently that their night be consequence-free. He didn’t deserve a pardon, he was sure, and he didn’t really believe in prayer.

But if it helped—if there was even a small chance…then it was worth trying.

Farina started to stretch, legs unfolding lazily, but before she’d completed the motion she sat up suddenly, eyes wide, lips parting. If her intention was to speak, it seemed she could not. Her mouth closed, teeth clicking together slightly. A moment passed, and he tilted his head to the side at the motion, feeling suddenly uncertain.

The silence made him fidget.

“It’s after dawn!” she practically hissed at him when she found her voice, fear curling in her words even as she scrambled for her clothes.

Her fingers trembled.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” she asked as if to fill the empty air between them. She turned away and pulled on her clothes. He watched a long rope of a scar disappear beneath the fabric of her dress. “This isn’t time to—you can’t—”

She ran out of words and he had never been good enough at using them to even begin to think of what to say to her that would make everything all right again.

She tugged on her boots, balance precarious on one foot. It seemed scarcely a moment passed before she was dressed, and he realized then that she had no reason to stay there even a moment longer.

“Someone is going to see me leaving,” she said, fingers fisted in the skirt of her dress. “Someone will see, you know, and then—your reputation—”

The words were too heavy to float and yet they hovered there between them for far too long.

He knew. He did. But the words fell out clumsily—harshly, even.

“I don’t care about that!”

Her expression froze for no more than a moment.

“Of course you don’t,” she all but choked out, forcing a laugh. If she’d managed to keep a steady voice he might have believed she wasn’t hurting. “I just—I wish you did. It’d be easier. Everything would be so much _easier_.”

He couldn’t pretend to understand what she meant by that. Didn’t it make it easier that he didn’t worry about that kind of nonsense? That he thought she was perfectly suited to him because she was herself and not a title or position or rank?

Words escaped him entirely; he could only reach out for her, but his fingers brushed nothing but air as she ducked out of the tent.


End file.
